


Paladins and Lions

by Emmy Lauren (Eml329)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Asexual Pidge | Katie Holt, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Deaf Character, Depressed Shiro (Voltron), Depression, Feels, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gen, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Magic, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Prophecy, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Sign Language, Whump, pidge is underappreciated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-12 19:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16001441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eml329/pseuds/Emmy%20Lauren
Summary: A Voltron fanfic that doesn't follow current canon timeline, so there will be spoilers from any and all seasons of Voltron.A whump fic that involves low-key Klance and..... other things. I don't want to spoil anything in the summary so maybe just give it a few chapters?If he was being honest with himself, Lance had begun to hate space. It wasn’t the people, he liked the other paladins and the alien races they saved. It wasn’t even the scenery. It was really awesome to wake up and see other galaxies outside the windows. But even still, He missed Earth.Really missed Earth.





	1. Not Feeling Well

**Lance**

  


If he was being honest with himself, Lance had begun to hate space. It wasn’t the people, he liked the other paladins and the alien races they saved. It wasn’t even the scenery. It was really awesome to wake up and see other galaxies outside the windows. But even still, He missed Earth.  
  
_Really_ missed Earth.  
  
He sighed. His muscles felt as if they were tied in knots from the intense training session Keith had led yesterday and getting out of his bed was harder than he cared to admit. He stood, shrugging on his jacket and threading a hand through his hair.  
  
He had just opened his bedroom door and stepped into the hallway when a large green projectile flew by his head, narrowly missing his hair. He jumped back with a screech.  
  
“What the Hell, Matt!” Why wasn’t Lance surprised: it was Pidge.  
  
“Sorry! It was an accident!” Matt was stammering.  
  
“It was an _accident_? That was the last healing potion we had! How are we supposed to win against the evil Dwarf king without healing potions?” Pidge was winding up to throw another food goo projectile at Matt when Lance heard another (more reasonable) voice cut through the room.  
  
“Pidge, it’s okay. I can always use my healing arrows.” It was Allura.  
  
Lance edged around the corner to watch as Pidge sat back, still sulking furiously. He stepped forward. “What are you guys doing in here?” he questioned.  
  
“Playing Monsters and Mana,” Matt responded and the same time Pidge spoke up.  
  
“Sabotaging our own team apparently,” She grumbled.  
  
“Oh come on, Pigeon. Hey, look! We can encounter the Dwarf King right now! We have the summoning materials!”  
  
Curan, ever the level headed narrator, said, “With a great flash of light, the dwarf king is awoken! You each have a D20 roll to see the damage dealt.”  
  
A few dice rolls later and Pidge was proven right as Coran recited, “Your opponent strikes at you menacingly, disabling Allura the archer!”  
  
Allure sighed, sitting back.  
  
Pidge put her head in her hands, then said, “Wow, if only we could revive our team member with a _healing potion_.” She pushed to her feet, “I’m tired of losing, I’m gonna go help Hunk make breakfast in the kitchen.”  
  
Shiro, who had been relatively quiet since Lance awoke, suddenly spoke, “It’s okay, Matt. This is Pidge’s favorite game and she’s pretty competitive. There are no hard feelings.”  
  
Matt scoffed, “Oh, I know. I’ve been playing RPGs with Pidge since she could talk. I always let her win when she was little, but now that she can really strategize, I like to sabotage her plans. I think of it was my payback for teaching her how to play them in the first place.  
  
Shiro chuckled, “I should’ve known.” He shook his head disappointingly, but the smile on his face said he wasn’t truly upset.  
  
Lance sat down in Pidge’s vacant seat at the table that had previously held the game. He yawned melodramatically. “So what’s today's plan, boss?”  
  
Shiro shrugged, “I think we are all a little wiped out from yesterday’s training, so maybe we’ll take a day just to bond with our lions and hang out.” He glanced at the Alteans, “Unless, you guys had something else in mind?”  
  
Coran shook his head. “Nope, we’ve received no distress signals in few quintents, so it seems like a calm day today.”  
  
Lance smiled, “Good. I’m so tired all the time recently. What with there being no real sun and all. Days and nights sorta blend together. You know?”  
  
Shiro nodded, “Take this day to rest up. We need you at top performance when we form Voltron.”  
  
Lance gave a mock salute. “Yes, sir!”  
  
“Good.” Shiro stood, “Hunk is probably close to finished with breakfast. Let's swing by and get something to eat.”  
  
Lance and Matt flanked Shiro on their walk to the kitchen, to find Hunk flipping over what seemed like bright purple scrambled eggs? Hunk grimaced, but picked up a piece and stuck it in his mouth hesitantly. They watched as he shrugged and continued flipping the bright colored food.  
  
Pidge was sitting at the edge of the kitchen counter, letting her legs swing off the edge, messing around with the holo screen of her Voltron armour’s wrist tech. She glanced up as they entered the kitchen, then, looking back down at the screen, said, “I’m picking some interesting frequencies. I have detected some static that sounds like normal space interference at first, but it was… odd. So I isolated the noise and I think it is a secret message coded to seem like interference. I’m working on decoding it now. It might be nothing.” She shrugged, “Or it might be something.”  
  
Shiro nodded. “Nice job, Pidge. Let us know when you’ve decoded it. Hey, Hunk, what’s for breakfast?”  
  
Hunk looked at the purple mess. “Uh, well, um… I’m not sure what this is. But it looks a little like eggs and tastes a little like carrots so…. There’s that.”  
  
Lance groaned. “I miss Earth food. What I wouldn’t give for some tamales… Oh! Or some fried ice cream!”  
  
Hunk rubbed his chin, thinking. “Well, I’m not sure about fried ice cream, but with Kaltenecker here, I could probably whip up an ice cream substitute.”  
  
“Aww, thanks buddy.” Lance plopped unceremoniously into a seat at the dining table. “Where’s the Incredible Sulk?”  
  
“Who?”  
Shiro sighed at the nickname. “I haven’t seen Keith this morning. Maybe he slept in.”  
  
Lance frowned. “Wait. Since when has Keith slept in? Ever? He usually wakes up at the same time as Shiro.”  
  
Shiro frowned, “Yeah, I suppose this is a little out of character.”  
  
A hesitant silence fell around them. Lance was surprised they weren’t more concerned about the sudden lack of Keith. It wasn’t that Lance was concerned. He wasn’t. He couldn’t care less about the emo of the group… but, he thought, I am a little _curious_. Yes, curious. That's the word. He glanced around, but every one seemed distracted with either their technology (Pidge and Matt) or the food (Hunk and Shiro).  
  
He cleared his throat. “You know what? I’m gonna go check up on Keith.”  
  
Shiro looked at Lance. “Let him know that food is ready, will you?”  
  
“Yeah sure.” Lance waved his hand dismissively.  
  
He stepped into the hallway, the kitchen door sliding shut behind him. Lance grimaced to himself. Why was he worried for Keith? No, he wasn’t worried. He was annoyed. That was it, he was annoyed that Keith didn’t deem them important enough to join for breakfast.  
  
But even still, he couldn’t shake this feeling as he approached Keith's room. He knocked on the door.  
  
A quiet groan issued from beyond the wall. “Shiro? I’m not really up for…” The door opened. Keith glared, “Oh. It’s you.”  
  
“Yeah, It’s me. Where have you been? We are all eating space eggs for breakfast.” Lance looked past Keith into the space beyond. His eyebrows rose as he noted that there was a few large blankets piled up on Keith’s bed. It was already much hotter in the room than in the hallway and Keith had another bright blue blanket draped around his shoulders. He looked miserable. “Woah, hey are you alright?”  
  
“I’m getting sick, you idiot.” Keith snapped. “I’ll be fine. Just tell Shiro I’m gonna stay in here unless there’s an emergency.” He stepped back into his room and unceremoniously closed the door. Lance frowned.  
  
“Your room is really hot… Are you sure you want all those blankets?”  
  
“Leave me alone, Lance!”  
  
“Okay…. I’ll let shiro know!” This was followed by a mumbled grumble of noise from Keith’s room. Lance turned, and headed back to the kitchen, but decided that he wanted to know what Keith was sick with. Lance wasn’t exactly a brilliant guy in regards to Earth sickness and he was completely out of his depth in space sickness. Bypassing the kitchen, he walked straight into the control room, and saw Coran pushing some buttons that he definitely didn’t understand.  
  
Coran looked up as the door shut behind him. “Ahh, What’s happening number Three?”  
  
“Hey, uhh, do you think any of us might be susceptible to space sickness?”  
  
“Space sickness? Well, I suppose that might be possible, but I’d imagine most viruses would be compatible with human DNA this far out in the galaxy. Why?”  
  
“I mean It’s probably dangerous if we get sick, right? Like, humans haven’t come into contact with these illnesses yet, right? So they could be fatal and we wouldn’t know.”  
  
“I’d say the chances of getting sick in the first place are slim enough you shouldn’t need to worry. The ship has a brilliant air filtration system! Nothing harmful is getting in here!”  
  
Lance paused, “Okay… umm, random question, does that also apply to Galra?”  
  
Coran sat back, thinking, “Well, no, I suppose a Galra would be more susceptible, beings as their DNA would have similar coding to another being in this galaxy, although…. Why are you so curious about this, Lance?”  
  
“I think Keith is getting sick… you know what, it’s probably no big deal. I’ll just leave you to… whatever you were doing.” Lance turned and walked out, heading back to the kitchen. He sat down by Pidge and Matt, who were discussing astrological signs.  
  
“Okay, but think about it. If astrology signs dictate your personality, how do you explain the personalities of all the alien races that can’t have star signs because don’t live in Earth’s galaxy?” Pidge asked.  
  
“Well, I’m not saying I believe it, I’m just saying you are such an Aries personality that perhaps…”  
  
“Hey guys,” Lance interrupted, “I think Keith is getting sick. He told me to let Shiro know that he won’t be leaving his room unless there is a Voltron emergency.”  
  
Shiro frowned, “Huh. It’s probably nothing, but ever since I met Keith, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him get sick. He always had a rock solid immune system.”  
  
Lance shrugged, “I don’t know, but his room was really hot, and he had a whole bunch of blankets... “  
  
“Sounds like a normal cold to me,” interjected Pidge.  
  
“Well, there is nothing we can do now, so lets wait and see what happens.” Shiro returned to his breakfast, and the group finished eating in silence.

  



	2. The Code

**Keith**

He felt awful.  
  
He had woken up to a room as cold as the arctic, and it just kept getting colder. He was so _cold_.  
  
Beyond the temperature, his head was pounding, his vision was blurring and he couldn’t stop shivering. He was bundled up in blankets staring up at the ceiling, sweating and freezing at the same time.  
  
Logically, he knew the room wasn’t really cold. Coran kept the whole ship at a constant comfortable temperature for the paladins, so he knew it was just the sickness getting to his brain… but then again… maybe he wasn’t sick? Did he just see his breath? Maybe it really is cold.  
  
If it really was cold, he had to tell the others… maybe the air unit was broken. That could be it. Or maybe…  
  
His thought process abruptly cut off and Keith couldn’t remember what it was he was contemplating. His brain felt foggy… What was happening?  
  
Shiro. He had to tell Shiro that the room was freezing.  
He uncomfortably forced himself to his shaky legs. His muscles hurt. Just then, a knock sounded at the door. He groaned, but forced himself to walk over and open it. “Shiro? I’m not really up for…” Slowly, his brain registered that it wasn’t Shiro at the door, but Lance. He glared. “Oh. It’s you.”  
  
Lance looked concerned, which fueled Keith’s annoyance. Lance’s eyes did a once over his body- still in pajamas and blankets. “Yeah, It’s me. Where have you been? We are all eating space eggs for breakfast,” He paused, “Woah, hey are you alright?”  
  
Keith could help but grind his chattering, sore-feeling teeth at that. But, if Lance didn’t feel the freezing cold, then that meant… “I’m getting sick, you idiot.” He snapped. “I’ll be fine. Just tell Shiro I’m gonna stay in here unless there’s an emergency.” He closed the door quickly. If he was in fact sick, he didn’t want to infect the others with prolonged contact.  
  
“Your room is really hot… Are you sure you want all those blankets?” Lance’s voice carried through the door.  
  
Keith gritted his teeth. “Just leave me alone, Lance!”  
  
The voice called back, “Okay! I’ll let Shiro know!”  
  
Good. Keith didn’t want to interact with the team in his condition. This wasn’t like any Earth sickness he had ever had… not that he had had many.  
  
Sleep. The best thing to do is sleep it off.  
  
He dropped back into bed, reconfiguring the blankets around him and fought to return to sleep.  
  
This was gonna be a long and miserable recovery.

  


**Pidge**

  


After breakfast, she snuck away to her lab space to work some more on decoding the messages she thought were in the static. She really could just be wasting her time. Beyond the uncommon pattern of the frequency, she had no reason to think it would become anything of interest.  
  
But, she supposed she had nothing better to do.  
  
She plopped heavily onto her bed and opened up her orange holo screen to manipulate the wave a little more. The blue space caterpillar sat on her shoulder, the yellow one floated around the junk coating the floor and the green one seemed to be sleeping on top of the space junk recreation of Hunk that she had saved.  
  
“If only I could….” Her words faded off as she became entrenched in the technology. After a bit of tinkering, she played the frequency again.  
  
VIZZ VIZZ VIP. VIZZ VIP. VIP VIZZ VIP VIP.  
  
She frowned. That was definitely not a natural pattern. She ran a software to minimize any actual interference that could prevent her from hearing the message and sat back as the cartoon version of her head overtook the screen for a bit to allow the software to run.  
  
A minute later, Pidge played the sound again.  
  
She frowned. It sounded so familiar… but where could she have heard something like this before?  
  
Maybe Matt would know, after all he did spent a bit of time with the rebels, this could be a similar code. She shook off the Blue caterpillar and strolled to Matt’s temporary room.  
  
Without bothering to knock, She entered to find Matt playing Killbot Phantasm 1, and briefly paused to watch before saying, “Your defense skill is way too low. Don’t encounter the first boss until you raise that up a bit.”  
  
Matt paused the game. “I still can’t believe that you found this! Killbot Phantasm is _legendary_!”  
  
She smiled widely. “Hey Matt, will you listen to this and tell me if there are any decoding techniques I need to try? I’ve made it very clear, but it is still only jumbled sounds, not words.”  
  
“No problem, Pigeon.”  
  
Pidge played the clip, and Matt’s eyes widened. When the sound was over she asked, “what? Is it a rebel code? Have you heard it before?”  
  
Matt nodded. “Yeah I know it. It’s not a rebel code. It’s a human code- from Earth. Its morse code.”  
  
Pidge froze. “Wait. Are you certain?”  
  
“Yes. Here, I can decode it for you. Dad and I learned morse code at the Garrison before you ever attended.”  
  
Pidge replayed the clip. And watched as Matt figured it out, letter by letter.  
  
VIZZ VIZZ VIP. VIZZ VIP. VIP VIZZ VIP VIP. VIP VIZZ VIP. VIZZ VIP.  
  
G. A. L. R. A.  
  
VIZZ. VIZZ VIZZ VIZZ. VIZZ VIP VIP VIZZ. VIP VIP. VIZZ VIP.  
  
T. O. X. I. N.  
  
VIP VIZZ VIP. VIP. VIP VIZZ VIP VIP. VIP. VIZZ VIP. VIP VIP VIP. VIP. VIZZ VIP VIP.  
  
R. E. L. E. A. S. E. D.  
  
Matt sat back against the wall. “Well, that’s what it says. Galra toxin released.”  
  
“But where is it coming from? Morse code had to be brought by humans out here, right? There must be humans nearby… what do you think the message means?”  
  
Matt met her eyes seriously, “I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound good. I’d inform Shiro of this ASAP.”  
  
Pidge nodded solemnly, “Roger that.” She stood and exited the room, leaving Matt to finish playing his game. She walked down the hall until she reached the lounge, where Shiro was laying back in a seat with his eyes closed and his hands folded over his stomach.  
  
“Hey Shiro, I finished decoding that space interference and, well, it’s not good.”  
  
“What is it?” He opened his eyes and sat up, letting his white tuft of hair fall back in front of his forehead.  
  
She adjusted her glasses and glanced down at the holo screen at her wrist. “Umm. The message was written in morse code and it translated to ‘Galra toxin released’.”  
  
Shiro frowned. “Morse code?”  
  
“Yeah. Either a human was here and taught morse code to some aliens, or there currently are humans nearby from Earth.”  
  
Shiro hummed. “Well, that’s odd. But, the message sounds like bad news. Do you know if the Galra have released a toxin, or if there is a toxin released that targets the galra? The message could mean either.”  
  
Pidge shook her head. “Nope. But, now I have a software searching for any more messages we can decode. Now that I know what I’m looking for, it should be easy. I’ll keep you updated.”  
  
“Thanks. Oh, and Pidge? Try to trace the message’s origin. I’d like to know who knows morse code this far out in space.”  
  
“Already on it.” She smiled, turning to leave.

  



	3. Unknown Chemical

**Allura**

Once new spread around the ship of Pidge’s discovery, Allura grew more and more concerned. Whether or not the people sending the message were on their side didn’t really matter, she didn’t like the idea of any toxin being released. Things like that could have disastrous consequences, and flashbacks of the quintessence corruption haunted her thoughts.  
  
At the time, harnessing and manipulating the quintessence seemed like the best thing, but now, looking back, they knew the truth.  
  
She hoped whatever this toxin was, it wouldn’t backfire as much as the quintessence.  
  
Allura didn’t think she could handle a repeat of the past.  
  
As soon as she heard the message “Galra Toxin Released” She immediately set to work testing the debris inside and outside of the ship for any unknown materials. Coran was given the job of collecting a sample of the atmosphere (or lack there of) outside of the ship, while she collected the indoors sample by checking the air filtration system.  
  
Once both samples were collected, Coran returned to the control room with his container, where Allura waited with hers.  
  
They didn’t exactly have a system that checked for Galra poisons, so Pidge worked with Hunk to program an old broken down air conditioner into something resembling an emission control system. Not that Allura understood what that was, but Pidge had tried to explain that it's a human atmosphere monitor to check for pollutions. But Allura still wasn’t quite sure.  
  
Pidge, Hunk, Allura and Coran all gathered around the makeshift machine and the first sample, the outdoor sample, was added. The machine whirled and buzzed for a while, and just when Pidge said, “Well, I guess I didn’t fix the programming after a-” The old system make a pop noise and begun to display the contents of the sample.  
  
22.64% Helium  
  
23.20% Carbon  
  
20.22% Nitrogen  
  
19.16% Hydrogen  
  
10.78% Oxygen  
  
2.40% *UNKNOWN* ERROR  
  
1.6% Trace pollutants  
  
“Wow Pidge. You really have a way with machines, huh?” Allura said, in awe.  
  
“Wait guys, are you seeing this?” Pidge leaned forward. “It looks like 2.4% of the sample was something the machine wasn’t able to identify, and it had the entire database of the Castle of Lions to reference. That could be our toxin.”  
  
“Or,” Hunk jumped in, “It could be something harmless. Lets not jump to conclusions yet.”  
  
Coran readied the machine to analyze the second sample. They waited quietly as the system whirled and buzzed loudly. Finally, it finished with a pop, and the display read:  
  
45.60% Oxygen  
  
25.37% Dihydrogen Monoxide  
  
23.25% Carbon Dioxide  
  
10.78% *UNKNOWN* ERROR  
  
“Umm… This might be an issue. For there to be such a high concentration of an unknown substance, the filtration of the ship must not be filtering it out, which means it will continue to get more and more potent.” Pidge spoke.  
  
Coran interjected next, “I’ll set to work fixing the air filtration system so it recognises that substance as harmful and separates it.”  
  
“Good. Pidge and I will work on testing the unknown substance to see if we can determine what it’s composed of. If we derive the chemical formula, we could neutralize any effects it has…. Creating an antidote of sorts.”  
  
Allura blinked in confusion. “I wish I could help more, but I’d only get in your way. So I’ll go check on the others. I know Keith isn’t feeling well, but he really should eat… maybe I’ll bring him some food.” Pidge and Hunk were already busy discussing their plan for synthesizing the formula, something that went way over Allura’s head, so she quietly exited the room and found her way to the kitchen.  
  
She collected some warm food goo, that closest thing they had to Earth soup, and walked toward Keith’s room. On her way, she passed the lounge, where Shiro sat, his hands on his knees.  
  
“Oh! Hey, Shiro.” she called.  
  
He raised his head to peer at her. “Hey Allura.”  
  
“I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but Pidge and Hunk found evidence of an unknown element in the air, so they are testing it to ensure it’s not whatever the galra toxin refers to.”  
  
Shiro nodded. He stayed quiet.  
  
“Shiro, are you doing alright?”  
  
He sighed dramatically, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, Allura, I’ll be fine. It’s just…” He waved his prosthetic hand, trying to find the right words. “We deal with so much. The paladins deal with so much. And the other paladins… they are so young. I just worry about these kids having so much responsibility on their shoulders. All the risks we face…” He shook his head. “I never want any of them to go through what Matt and I have experienced at the hands of the Galra.”  
  
Allura stopped walking and turned to Shiro. “I understand your concern. I know I’d feel the same way if I’d experienced what you have. But we must continue, and we must take risks so that others can have freedom- so that others don't have to go through what you and Matt went through.”  
  
Shiro gave Allura a small smile, but his leg begun to bounce, revealing his hidden anxiety.  
  
Allura couldn’t help but wonder if Shiro wasn’t as over his Galra imprisonment as he pretended to be.  
  
With a kind smile, she kept walking to Keith’s room. She knocked on the door, and when she received no answer, she opened it up.  
  
She peered around the barely open door, “Hey, Keith?”  
  
Then, she gasped.  
  
Oh no.  
  
_Oh no._

  


**Hunk**

“I think I might have something!” Hunk exclaimed. “If we can isolate an isotope, then carefully expose it to different chemical compounds, we can see what it reacts with!”  
  
Pidge sighed, “I guess that might work, but remember, we had every Earth compound in the database for my machine to reference, which means that this is something not on the periodic table. It could be based off quintessence, I suppose… but that stuff is so hard to get a hold of…”  
  
Hunk reached up and pulled off his headband. Running a hand through his hair, then replacing it. “If only we had a Galra to test it on.”  
  
“Hunk! That’s brilliant! I can synthesize a replica of Galra DNA, and see how the compound reacts. If it reacts, we’ll know its the toxin, if it doesn’t… then, well, we still won’t know what it is, but at least we’d know it isn't Galra toxin!”  
  
To contain the experiment from outside influences and control some variables, Hunk led Pidge to the cryo pods. If she built her fake Galra DNA in there, they wouldn’t need to worry about undesirable results.  
  
Hunk sat back and let Pidge work on programing the cryo pod. As much as he enjoyed helping her, and keeping her company, he wasn’t the master of this kind of stuff. Better to let her do her own thing.  
  
Not much later, Pidge whispered “I got it!”. She carefully reached up and pulled a strand of her hair, and placing it carefully into the pod. Then, she closed the pod door and clicked a few more buttons of the control panel. Then the cryo pod begun to glow.  
  
“What is it doing?” Hunk wondered aloud.  
  
“Well, It is using my DNA as a template to design Galra DNA. Basically, it is disguising my human-ness and replacing it with galra-ness. All I had to do was modify my cloaking software to be compatible with DNA, which honestly wasn’t too hard. DNA really is just another code…”  
  
Before Hunk’s eyes, Pidge’s gold strand of hair became a dull grey color. “Great! It worked! Can you go retrieve the isolated sample of the unknown compound?”  
  
“Sure thing.” Hunk walked back to the control room, found the container full of the offending gas (it looked and felt empty, which freaked Hunk out even more), and returned to the cryo pods to hand it to Pidge.  
  
Pidge placed the entire container of the compound inside the pod with the piece of “Galra” hair. She carefully opened the container, freeing whatever the gas was inside, and sealed the cryo pod shut.  
  
Together they watched the reaction. At first, nothing seemed to happen, The hair didn’t implode or explode, didn’t seem to react at all. Hunk was equal parts relieved and disappointed.  
  
After a few minutes, Pidge sighed, “Oh well, It’s not a Galra toxin. I guess that’s good and bad news.”  
  
She opened the pod the reached for the piece of hair, “Well, now we need to come up with a new test… maybe a reference to quintessence test? I could monitor radiation lev-” Her words abruptly cut off.  
  
Hunk glanced over, “Pidge?”  
  
The “galra” hair, that she had carefully taken out of the pod had disintegrated into virtually nothing in her fingers. The dust that remained where the hair used to be glittered like fresh snow but it appeared to be smoking.  
  
“Uhh, Hunk… It’s definitely a toxin that targets Galra DNA.”  
  
Hunk nodded, even though Pidge couldn’t see it with her back turned. Then he paused and said, “Isn’t Keith half Galra?”  
  
Pidge’s head whipped around and her eyes widened horrifically as the question sunk in.  
  
Just then, a scream echoed through the castle.

  



	4. He'll be Alright

**Keith**

It’s too cold.  
  
It’s too cold.  
  
It’s too cold.  
  
It’s too cold.  
  
It’s too cold.  
  
Cold.  
  
Cold.  
  
Cold.  
  
Cold.  
  
Cold.  
  
Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.Cold.  
  
_Cold._

  


**Shiro**  


Allura’s scream seemed to reverberate deep into Shiro’s bones. Before he could even comprehend what he was doing, Shiro was on his feet running- _sprinting_ \- to Keith’s room.  
  
He should’ve known.  
  
Keith was acting odd and Shiro brushed it off and he _should have known_.  
  
Shiro arrived at the open door to find a spilled tray of warm food goo littering the open passage. Allura must have dropped it in panic… but why? The room was burning up, and heat radiating out in waves that made Shiro’s eyes water.  
  
His eyes had a sweep across the room and he found Allura kneeling at the edge of the bed, her long white hair blocking his view.  
  
“Allura! What is it?” She whipped around to stare at him with horrified eyes, shifting her shoulders so he could see the writhing mass on the bed.  
  
Oh my God.  
  
Allura was tearing up, blubbering softly as she hovered over him. “I don’t know what to do! I don’t know what’s wrong!”  
  
Shiro froze. He should know what to do. He should know… Slowly. Too slowly, his Garrison emergency first-aid training returned to him and he rushed over to Keith. He glanced over the situation, then finally spoke, “Don’t touch him. He’s having a seizure.” Shiro watched as blood- or what seemed like blood- began to leak from Keith’s ears. “Oh no. Allura, get me a clean towel or cloth.”  
  
Allura quickly nodded and exited the room, but Matt quickly came in to take her place.  
  
“Shiro? I heard screaming. What’s wro- Oh.” Matt, who had had the same training as Shiro, came to the same conclusions as the black paladin. “It’s a seizure. And we need a cloth for a spinal fluid halo test.”  
  
“Allura is already on it.” Shiro said. His voice stayed calm and level, but his panicked eyes and the shaking of his human hand told Matt the truth. “Matt, I need you to tell Coran to ready a healing pod.”  
  
Matt nodded diligently, “Yeah. No problem.” He rushed from the room, leaving shiro alone with Keith’s violently shuddering body. That was the extent of Shiro’s seizure knowledge, and even though he knew he was dealing with this sudden emergency well, Shiro had a deep pit of anxiety in his chest. He felt useless. And as the seconds ticked by, each the length of a year, Shiro felt his own eyes fill with tears.  
  
No. Now was not the time to cry. Not when his team members needed him.  
  
He wiped at his eyes and did another thorough once over of Keith’s situation. The room was still so hot that Shiro felt himself sweating, but Keith was covered in blankets. Shiro tossed them all off of the red paladin revealing some more of his pale skin.  
  
Except it wasn’t pale. Much of the skin Shiro could see was a deep red color and appeared to be throbbing. It was inflamed horrifically and made Shiro’s heart drop further into the growing anxiety in his chest.  
  
Allura came rushing back into the room, holding a small white cloth. Shiro sighed in relief. She passed it to him and he carefully wrapped it around his first finger, dipping the cloth into the blood that was now leaking from Keith’s ears and nose. He pulled it back and examined the cloth for a minute. Then he cursed violently enough that Allura jumped.  
  
Positive.  
  
The halo test was positive.  
  
“There is pressure at the base of his brain and spine. This is very bad… this is-” Shiro cut himself off. He needed to stay level-headed. “We need a healing pod. Now!”  
  
Just then, Pidge came sprinting through the door. “It’s a Galra toxin!” She panted, “The unknown substance. It’s a toxin that targets Galra DNA and there is a very high concentration of it on this ship. _That_ is what’s affecting Keith!”  
  
Pidge’s eyes fell over the red paladin and she froze and her eyes widened cartoonishly. She kept talking, “Shiro, to humans or alteans, the air is completely normal. But to a Galra, This high of a concentration could easily be lethal. I honestly think that the only reason Keith is alive is because he’s only half Galra.”  
  
Shiro looked back at Pidge. “I’ll carry Keith to the cryo pods. Run ahead and tell Coran that the pod he prepares needs to filter out the toxin from the air.”  
  
She didn’t bother responding as she turned and ran from the room.  
  
Shiro didn’t know much about seizures. He knew you weren’t supposed to touch the person while they were having one- but right now, he couldn’t see another way to get him to the healing pods in a reasonable amount of time. So he careful scooped up the pale boy, noting how small he seemed now that he wasn’t able to give them his classic Keith attitude. Shiro was repetitively whispering, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”  
  
Shiro reached the healing pods quickly, and carefully placed Keith in the open one that Coran was fussing with. The clear door sealed around Keith and his shaking, convulsing body finally went still.  
  
Coran stepped back. “I adjusted the air filtration system in there with Number Five’s help. So Number Four should be ripe as rain in no time.”  
  
The whole group, who was standing around the pod, collectively released a sigh of relief. Shiro wasn’t sure when Lance and Hunk had shown up, but there they were. Lance was nervously biting his nails, eyes flickering from Shiro to Keith and back. Hunk was a distance away from the group, looking positively green in the face.  
  
Pidge looked like she was having a difficult time calming down. “Hey Coran,” She called, “Did you get the main Castle air system fixed? So it filters everything, I mean.”  
  
“Yes. Though it will take some time to completely clear the poison from the system. Maybe you could come down and take a look?” Coran replied.  
  
Pidge nodded, and as she turned to leave, Matt pulled her into into a hug, his hand mussing up her hair good naturedly. She gave them a small smile and followed Coran to the system control room.  
  
Hunk quietly excused himself, knowing if he stayed, the anxiety would make him sick.  
  
Allura and Matt watched Shiro, then Matt spoke, “You did good today, Shiro. You saved him.”  
  
Shiro nodded, but didn’t meet their eyes.  
  
“I’ll give you some privacy.” Matt and Allura sauntered off, leaving Shiro standing in front of the pod and Lance a bit behind him.  
  
Silence filled the room.  
  
After a while, Shiro finally sighed then said, “You don’t need to stay here, Lance. I’ll monitor Keith if you want to go do something else.”  
  
Lance’s voice was as solemn as Shiro had every heard it. “That’s okay. I’ve got nothing else to do. I may as well keep our resident emo company.”  
  
The joke fell flat, but Shiro appreciated the effort. He nodded, Then walked back and sat by Lance, eyes falling on the comatose Keith once more.  
  
Silence stretched on, the soft whirling of the healing pod amplified in the quiet,  
  
“Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened if we didn’t break you out of the Garrison that day when you fell back to Earth?” Lance asked.  
  
“Hmm?”  
  
“If Hunk and Pidge and I never broke you out, we never would’ve met Keith. Or met you either for that matter. We never would’ve left Earth, and we probably never would’ve gotten the chance to. Not with grades like ours.” A small smile. “We wouldn’t be the paladins of Voltron.”  
  
“Lance…”  
  
“I think about that sometimes. How everything we’ve accomplished, everything our lives have become started because of a series of extremely random events. Events that could’ve been different at any step of the way. But they weren’t different. They were the perfect series of events that led us to where we are now.”  
  
“Lance, what do you-”  
  
“I guess I’m trying to say that… I’m not a super religious guy,” Lance interrupted. “But it seems like there is a force out there somewhere that wants us to be the Paladins. A force that causes everything to happen for a reason. And… well…. I don’t know. Whatever happens must be for the best… right?”  
  
“I don’t know, Lance. I’d like to believe that.”  
  
A pause.  
  
“Keith will be alright?”  
  
“Keith will be alright.” Shiro echoed.

  



	5. The Second Message

**Lance**

 

Lance didn’t care to admit to himself how much of his personality came from Keith.

Keith was the center of all his jokes.

Keith was the person he admired most in their training.

Keith was his opposite.

Keith was his inspiration.

Lance was ashamed to admit it… but he honestly felt like a part of himself was missing as he stared at Keith’s body floating in the pod.

Keith had been in the healing pod for four days now. Each day Lance would come and keep him company… or at least chat with him as if Keith could hear. Shiro had started to give Lance sneaky knowing smiles whenever he ran across Lance by the healing pods. 

According to Coran, Keith was as healed as the pod could manage, but they refused to let him out until after all the toxin was filtered out of the ship, which, even with Pidge’s advancements to the system, was taking forever.

Yesterday at dinner, Coran had announced the damage that the pod was able to recover. Keith had severe pressure built up in his brain, his skin was inflamed from the irritation by the toxin and honestly, Coran had concluded, it was a miracle he was still alive. At that, Lance had scoffed.

As if Keith would leave them that easily.

Coran had warned them however, “The pods brought the swelling and inflammation in his brain down, but any damage that had already been sustained couldn’t be helped by the pods.” They just weren’t advanced enough for that.

But Shiro wasn’t worried… Allura had found Keith early enough that the chances of damage were slim to none. 

If Shiro wasn’t worried, Lance shouldn’t be either, right?

The other shocking discovery was the temperature. Keith’s temperature was climbing at 110 degrees Fahrenheit when they put him in the pod. Pidge wasn’t sure why the toxin caused the spike in fever, but she had seemed shocked at the number. “One hundred and ten? You’re certain?” She had squealed. “That’s extremely rare for a human… that can cause brain damage, too!”

Coran had hummed at that. “Well I suppose. But Galra withstand temperatures up to 150 degrees with no consequences. I guess we just don’t know if Number Four with react like a human or a Galra!”

The team had dispersed to practice their training sequences and bond with their lions after that. Lance couldn’t stay focused enough to do either of those things. He found himself visiting Kaltenecker often, just to have someone to talk to without bothering his team.

This morning however, Lance just sat in front of the pod and thought. 

Lance really cared for Keith.

But… Lance didn’t understand where this sudden longing came from.

Lance had known he was bisexual for a while. Since before he attended the Garrison even. But, did he really like Keith? 

No.

No. These feelings were from a place of concern. Worry, even, but nothing more.

He was thinking too far into things and making rash conclusions.

Yes, he thought, yes that’s it.

It’s concern for his teammate and nothing more.

 

**Pidge**

 

Pidge never had had the best sleep schedule. Matt could attest to that- even as a child, she stayed up far past when she should’ve slept and woke up only a couple hours later. But, recently, she had thought that she was improving. Having no sun to go off of meant that she could sleep whenever she was tired without any worry for the actual time. Unlike Lance, who hated that they didn’t have a true day and night cycle, Pidge rather enjoyed the freedom of choosing for herself when she wanted to sleep.

But stress had hit her pretty hard. 

She knew that Keith was gonna be fine… but that wasn’t her only worry. She noticed Shiro regressing into his PTSD more and more often, Lance was isolating himself, Hunk seemed lonely and homesick. Their whole Voltron team wasn’t doing so hot.

So Pidge sorta… Forgot to sleep? Repeatedly?

She spent most of her days tinkering with the air filtration system. Sure, they had stopped this toxin, but what about future incidents? She wanted to design a more foolproof software so something like this never happened again.

At nights (when she definitely should’ve been sleeping, but never mind that), she monitored the space interference to find anymore coded messages. They were dealing with someone who was using  _ chemical warfare  _ against the Galrans, so discovering who and where they are has become top priority.

But since the first message, none have come in. Yet.

Pidge decided that she had spent too long alone tinkering with her technology and achieving mediocre results. Shrugging off her pajamas, she put on her green and white sweater-ish top and classic grey shorts. Then, she exited her room and went in search of the training hall.

The whole castle was much quieter without Lance and Keith there to bicker with each other. It was unnerving.

She entered the training hall to find Allura was already there, her hair in a bun and pink armor on. Allura turned to meet her eyes as she came in. then she said, “Training sequence pause.”

Pidge smiled, “Don’t stop on my account. I’m gonna run some tech simulations to keep my mind in shape ‘cause I’m not really feeling the whole fighting thing today.”

Allura gave a mock-glare, joking reprimanding, “Don’t go getting soft of us, Pidge.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it Princess!” She called, passing Allura and exiting the hall to find the Lion’s hangar. Pidge walked into the Green Lion’s “room” so to speak. 

“Hey Green. I’m thinking I’ll just run some tech simulations? That cool with you?”

The Lion bowed its giant mechanical head in reply to let Pidge enter. 

Pidge quickly sat in the pilot’s chair and said, “Okay, Green. Remember that new sequence I downloaded into your training mainframe? Start it up. Situation #1442 if I’m not mistaken.” Pidge had to create her own tech simulations because she had already completed all the sims the Lion already had installed.

She remembered creating situation #1442, but she had yet to beat it. Honestly, she didn’t even know if it was possible.

The lights in the Lion blinked as the training sequence commenced. Suddenly, out the front window, she saw a fake space galaxy, instead of the castle of Lions. 

In situation #1442, The Galra locating software malfunctions, but instead of shutting off, it starts flooding the Lions with false positives for Galra locations. Her task is to fix the software and determine the true enemy locations.

She loved these simulations, they were like high stakes video games that she designed for herself and called “training”. 

She always attempts to beats her own sims in less than an hour, but she had never completed this one, so she decided to wave the hour rule. Coding something completely from scratch would take her a bit longer than that.

Pidge had just begun her coding when the sim situation shut off with a flash of red lights in the Lion. Pidge glanced up confused. Why had her Lion taken her out of the training sequence? No alarms were going off and nothing seemed to be wrong.

“Green?” She asked.

In response, the lion displayed an incoming frequency recording on the windshield in front of her. It was a live recording and Pidge recognized it instantly. “It’s more of the Morse code!” She instantly set a tracing software on the message to identify the source of the communication. While the tracing software worked, She clarified the Morse code message to  get it ready for Matt to decode.

Not long after that, the buzzing of a failed trace come through. Wherever the codes were coming from, her software wasn’t equipped to trace it.

She had never had that issue before, usually her tech is sufficiently modern, but this time, her tracer software wasn’t even close to pinpointing a location. 

Whoever is sending these messages, they really knew what they were doing. First the chemical warfare, and now evading her tracing software? She was less and less optimistic that these people meant no harm to them.

Pidge gathered her stuff and exited the Lion, thanking Green on her way out. Though her trace was unsuccessful, she still had a new message to uncover. And after the first one led to a Paladin almost dying, she would waste no time.

She already had the recording up on her holo screen when she knocked on Matt’s door. “Matt? I’ve got another code for you.”

His door opened and he yawned, but motioned for her to enter. She played him the clip and his eyebrows, the same color as her own, rose. “This will take me some time.” He spoke, “This one is a lot longer than the last one.”

Pidge nodded, “Will you get started on it right away?”

Matt looked down at the holo screen, where the message was held. “Of course. Give me half an hour.”

She gave him a hug. “Thanks Mattie!” Then she left, returning to the paladin lounge to let her brother translate the message in peace.

Only a bit later, Matt rushed out of his room, “Katie? Pidge!”

She stood, meeting him halfway in between his room and the lounge. “What?”

“This is what it says.” He handed her a piece of paper where he had scribbled some words. “This doesn’t seem good.”

She looked down at the paper. In bold letters, her brother had spelled out:

 

GOOD. INCOMING SHIP 40.26.46N 119.78.3W. NOT GALRA. ASSUME HOSTILE.

PREP EMP. GALRA FLEET APPROACHING IN 8 DAYS 18.00 HOURS.

 


	6. The Release

**Shiro**

 

Shiro called a mandatory team meeting after Pidge told him about the second message. Now, they were all sitting at the dining table (with the exception of Keith), as he read over the second message for a third time.

“Okay. What do we know about the people sending these messages?” He asked.

Pidge cleared her throat, “Well, not much. And my tracing software didn’t work, so I don’t have a location, but I know for sure that this message didn’t come from the same place as the last one. So these messages are probably a back-and-forth between two parties.”

“Thanks Pidge. Keep working on tracing the origin, won’t you?” Pidge nodded in reply.

Hunk spoke next, “I mean, they are either reckless enough or desperate enough to use chemical toxins on the Galra. I’d guess they probably don’t have a high moral code.”

“That brings up another point,” Shiro added. “How do you diffuse a toxin into a vacuum like space effectively? They must have enough resources to create mass amounts of the stuff… which could mean we’re dealing with someone with either lots of money…” 

“Or lots of power,” Allura finished. “If they are against the Galra they might be willing to help us. But, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea… not after Keith.”

Lance, who was noticeably quiet, flinched at that.

Shiro ran his hand through the white part of his hair, sitting back in his chair at the head of the table. “And Matt confirmed they definitely aren’t with the rebels. And they aren’t a part of the Blade of Marmora, right?” Allura shook her head. “I didn’t think any other groups had enough power to fight back this effectively.”

“I didn’t either,” Allura confirmed.

“Did Coran pinpoint the coordinates in the message yet? If another ship is approaching this area, it’s probably important we know who, right?” Shiro asked.

Coran came barreling into the dining hall at that moment.

“Speak of the devil…” Pidge whispered.

“The coordinates in the message are talking about us!  _ We  _ are the incoming ship it refers to!”

Shiro furrowed his eyebrows, “Isn’t the ship’s cloaking on?”

Coran nodded, “Indeed it is! Quite a conundrum, isn’t it. In theory, no one should be able to tell we are here, but the coordinates are our exact spot!”

Pidge leaned forward, “And their tech was strong enough that my tracing software didn’t even make a dent in decoding their location. Whoever these people are... they are seriously stacked with tech.”

“Well, we still don’t have a location of where the sender is, so we don’t even know how close we are to people using Earth time units.” Matt spoke.

Shiro sighed dramatically, “Okay. What about the other part of the message?”

Pidge fidgeted with the glasses on her face. “Sounds to me like they know the movements of the Galra fleets well enough to predict the  _ hour _ they will strike over a week away! But, of course, that makes no sense! Even with technology so advanced that I could only dream of it, Galra don’t usually plan their expeditions that far in advance. Usually it’s pretty spontaneous… at least in our experience.”

Lance’s voice was quiet when he said, “It could be magic.”

Pidge scoffed, “It’s not magic, Lance. Don’t be stupid.”

“Actually.” Allura interjected, “I think we need to entertain the possibility that they could be using magic.”

Pidge looked at her, “But isn’t magic really just Quintessence? Haggar uses magic by manipulating Quintessence and the Lions have magic because of the quintessence asteroids they were made from.”

“Well, yes, I suppose some magic is Quintessence, but different galaxies have different rules and laws as to how the world works… I’ve been to planets where Alchemy was a common practice, and others where runes give power.”

Coran interrupted, “You guys have even been to a couple planets were telepathy is common practice.”

“Yes. Heck, even the Alteans can shapeshift!” Allura finished. “So who is to say they couldn’t be using magic?”

Pidge groaned in frustration, “I’m a little out-of-my-depth in regards to magic.”

Shiro’s eyes watched like ping-pong balls, flicking back and forth throughout the discussion. “You know what,” He finally exclaimed. “I think we need to take a breather and return to this topic in a bit. Pidge, how close is the ship to being completely filtered? I’d like to check on Keith.”

Pidge met his dark grey eyes, “According to my system analysis,” She flicked her fingers over the orange holo screen, “We are at 97- oh! Actually 100% filtered! We are clear to release Keith.”

“Good.” Shiro stood from the dining table, briskly making his way toward the pods. The group followed behind him, except Matt, who gave the explanation, “He doesn’t really know me… I’ll just stay back and work on Pidge’s software updates.” 

Shiro reached the clear container that held Keith’s peaceful looking body and waited for the team to file in behind him. Coran stepped up to the control panel. “Number Four should be in tip-top condition, but the machines aren’t equipped to heal human brain damage… so we will have to wait and see the any long-term effects to know if Keith is really okay.”

Without further delay, Coran shut off the pod and opened the door, releasing a dramatic puff of steam. 

The door swung open and Shiro stepped forward to greet Keith. 

Keith’s eyes fluttered and he made a low moaning sound, then he gracefully tripped and would’ve fallen face first into the floor, if Shiro hadn’t reached out and caught him.

“Hey buddy!” Shiro laughed, “It’s normal to be a little disoriented. How do you feel?”

Keith didn’t respond, pushing against Shiro with arms that were shaking violently. He seemed to be trying to find his own footing, but his bare toes kept slipping. Shiro heard Lance give a small chuckle at how silly it seemed. Keith, the powerful, competent at everything second-in-command, unable to stand on his own two feet.

“Keith! Hey, don’t worry about standing, yet. I’ll carry you back to your room and you can rest, alright?” Shiro tried again.

Keith still didn’t respond. Not even a blink of recognition that his brother had said anything at all.

Keith finally, slowly, lifted his head to meet Shiro’s eyes. Shiro had since given up his polite smile and was anxiously furrowing his eyebrows.

“Keith? Talk to me, buddy.”

Keith’s eyes strayed to Shiro’s lips and his eyebrows furrowed to match the Black Paladin’s. Then, his eyes moved past Shiro’s shoulders to lock onto Lance’s. 

“Hey, Mullet-head!” Lance joked nervously, “You’re kinda scaring us, man.”

Keith’s eyes grew more confused. They flicked back and forth between the Blue and Black Paladin’s before he shook his head frantically. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

When neither Shiro or Lance responded, Keith shook his head again, opening his mouth for a second time. Nothing but garbled nonsense came out. “Zrrrro… nii wraat reeer.”

Shiro was, understandably, confused. His voice dropped in pitch until he was virtually whispering. “Keith, snap out of it, buddy.”

At this point, the others, except for Lance, had taken a step back to give them some privacy, but remained close enough to watch what was happening. Lance had closed the gap until he was only a few feet from Shiro, who was still supporting Keith’s full weight.

Keith seemed to grow more frustrated. “Zeerrro!” He exclaimed. It seemed to be extremely difficult for the red Paladin to get a word out. 

Lance took another step forward. “Shiro.” He realized. “Shiro. He is saying Shiro.”

Keith’s eyes met Lances when Shiro looked back at the sharpshooter. Shiro’s eyes were heartbroken and he didn’t seem to know what to do with the boy in his arms. “What is it Keith?”

Keith gripped Shiro’s arms tightly. “Zrrrro. Nii Wraat Reer!”

Shiro looked to Lance for help, but he shrugged. He didn’t know what Keith was trying to say either.

Keith seemed to realize this. Shiro’s eyes grew even wider in horror, if that was possible, as Keith’s own eyes filled with tears. 

Lance gasped softly behind him. They had never once seen Keith cry.

“Zerro. I. Nannt. Reer!” Keith seemed to be enunciating his words as clear as he could… and Lance’s brain reeled.

Lance gasped a second time. “Shiro.” He said, “Shiro, He can’t hear.”

They all froze and Shiro, choked with emotion, said, “Keith?”

The crying boy just repeated, “Zerro. I. Nannt. Reer.”

Shiro seemed shell shocked, so Lance shook his hand to get Keith’s attention then pointed to his own ears, then to Keith’s own. Keith shook his head vehemently.

Then, Keith dissolved into sobs. Shiro gathered him completely into his arms and together, they walked back to Keith’s room. The room had been cleaned and organised since they last were in here, the spilled food goo and extra blankets were cleaned and put away.

The team hadn’t followed them in here. Keith clung to Shiro, panicked and terrified and confused. Shiro placed him on the bed, but Keith didn’t loosen his grip. 

Shiro sat by the edge of his bed, letting himself be Keith’s rock. Keith’s body was exhausted from the cryo pod and he cried himself to sleep against the Black Paladin’s shoulder. All the while Shiro felt that he himself was drowning.

What were they going to do now?

 


	7. Handwriting

**Hunk**

 

After Shiro and Keith left, The team stayed frozen. No one dared speak.

“Lance?” Hunk wasn’t sure who spoke.

They all watched as Lance’s eyes filled with tears and he quickly turned and sprinted the other direction without another word.

Pidge sounded choked up as she cleared her throat, “Well. At a fever higher than 108 degrees, it’s not uncommon for the inner ear to be damaged. I guess he just… reacted like a human instead of a Galra.”

Allura had a hand covering her mouth in horror, “It’ll heal, right? Humans can heal from that sort of thing, right?”

Pidge’s voice dropped as she said, “It’s rare. Usually sensorineural damage is permanent… but nothing is certain.”

Hunk didn’t know what to think. Of the whole team, he probably had the most experience with deaf people, his niece had lost her hearing soon after she was born, and his whole family took up sign language. But Keith didn’t know sign language. And the communications that the lions used was almost entirely auditory.

“Pidge, is there any way we can build a hearing aid for him?” Hunk asked.

The Green Paladin typed something into her orange holo screen and then looked up to meet his eyes. “It depends on the severity of the damage. If he has any amount of hearing left at all, then yeah… it wouldn’t be hard to develop a software that translates sound to a range he could hear.”

Hunk was scared to ask, “What if he doesn’t have any hearing left?”

Pidge sighed, “Then we’d need to develop an implant for his brain… something that could receive signals by completely acting as a new ear. That… well, I suppose it’s not impossible, but that would be a lot harder and, honestly, quite a bit more dangerous. I wouldn’t be comfortable doing something like that here without a professional.”

Coran said, “What do we do about Voltron?”

“What do you mean?” Pidge questioned.

“I mean… he can’t pilot the Red Lion effectively right now and we have a Galra fleet approaching in 8 Quintents and 18 Vargas!”

“Coran,” Hunk interrupted. “He is deaf, not incompetent. He can still pilot Red. Pidge and I will work on adjusting the tech so he can see our commands instead of hearing them, right?”

Pidge nodded solemnly, “Yeah. It wouldn’t be too hard. And the message said 8 days 18 hours, Coran. They used Earth time units.”

“Honestly, as far as setbacks go, this isn’t too awful. Some extra team building exercises and minor adjustments in tech and we’ll be good to go!” Hunk wondered if the shock and strained optimism was obvious in his voice like it was in Pidge’s.

They dispersed shortly after that, Allura still silently in shock and Coran doubtful of their optimism. Pidge followed Hunk to the lounge to start sketching some basic blueprints for tech adjustments.

“Hey, Hunk?” She asked, “How do you know so much about this? I mean, you seem to know what you are doing when it comes  to the things we’ll need to fix for Keith.”

“My niece was deaf. In Hawaii, there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff available to her. Growing up, she would sign with us in the house, but at school, they expected her to lip read or write everything down. We would cook together and she would burn things because she couldn’t hear the timer. Eventually I started fixing things to make it easier for her. I added lights to the timers and the doorbell… you know, stuff like that.”

Pidge smiled, “That’s so sweet. I wish I could see her.”

Hunk sighed longingly, “Yeah, me too. She is seriously gonna kill me when I get back to Earth.”

The Green Paladin returned to her blueprint ideas, “So, I was thinking…”

 

**Keith**

 

The world was still silent when Keith awoke. Against his better judgement, he had hoped to himself that he would wake up and it would’ve all been a horrible dream.

He sat up, Shiro must have left at some point when he fell asleep because he was alone.

Keith stood and shrugged on his red jacket and black pants. It was odd to not hear the fabric rustling or the steps of his feet against the floor.

He stepped out of his room and felt his stomach rumble… it was weird. He would seriously need to get used to life in silence. 

Or, he supposed, Pidge and Hunk could help him to hear again.

He headed to the kitchen, only to find it devoid of any other people. Good, he thought, I don’t want to deal with them yet.

He sat down at the table with his plate of food goo, his back toward the door. 

Maybe that was why he didn’t notice the entrance slide open and Lance enter.

It wasn’t until the Blue Paladin was almost touching his shoulder that Keith realized he wasn’t alone. Keith jumped in fright, taking in a deep gasp.

Lance jumped back in tandem.

Keith lifted his hands in a ‘what-do-you-want?’ sort of way.

Lance sat in the seat beside him, pulling out a notebook and a pen. Keith watched as he scribbled,  _ Hey Mullet-head! How are ya feeling? _

Keith raised his eyebrows. He’d be lying if he said that the nickname didn’t make him feel better. Everything else in Keith’s world was crumbling and shifting, but at least the horrible nicknames were constant. Keith gestured for the pen, and when Lance handed it over, Keith wrote,  _ Your handwriting sucks _ . 

Keith purposely avoided answering Lance’s question. How did he feel? He wasn’t sure how he felt. He felt betrayed by his own body. He felt hurt and scared and confused. He felt like he being pitied, which he couldn’t stand. But worst of all… he felt weak.

He felt really weak.

Lance pouted upon reading Keith’s response. He forcefully stole the pen back.  _ And you write like a fine lady _ .  _ Do you wanna see the others? Most of them are in the lounge. _

Keith held his hand out for the pen.  _ Most? _

Lance shrugged, adding,  _ We haven’t seen Shiro since he brought you to your room. _

Keith shook his head.  _ I’ll talk to Shiro first and go to the lounge after _ .

Lance nodded in understanding. He held up the pen and notepad with his eyebrows up. Keith seemed to understand because he shrugged then nodded, taking the notepad and pocketing the pen.

Lance stood and left, and Keith finished eating his food goo in peace.

Keith had an idea as to where Shiro might be hiding. When he put away his dishes, he adjusted his hair and walked out into the hall, turning toward the Black Lion’s hangar.

The room appeared empty when he entered, except for the giant Black Lion, of course. But Keith didn’t hesitate as he strolled forward and raised his arms over his head, waving them to get the Lion’s attention. 

When the Lion didn’t move he got more frustrated. Speaking was a challenge, after all, he couldn’t hear the sounds he was making to verify they were correct. Instead, he pulled out the notepad and wrote,  _ SHIRO, COME OUT HERE  _ in giant letters. He held the notebook above his head.

After a long moment, the Lion’s head dropped and Shiro emerged. It was clear that he had been crying, which made Keith uneasy. Shiro was the strong one. Shiro was the optimistic one. Shiro was who Keith needed to be strong right now.

Flipping to a new notebook page, Keith pened,  _ What happened while I was out? _

Shiro reached out for the paper and pen, and Keith waiting patiently as the entire story of the Galra toxin and the coded messages was written out. Shiro’s handwriting was small and strong in a way that was pleasing to look at. 

At the end of the almost-page-long story, Shiro had written  _ I’m sorry. _

Keith furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Sorry for what? He pointed to the words for clarification. 

Shiro hung his head in shame then wrote, _ If we had noticed what was happening sooner _ … then Shiro stopped and crossed out the word “we”, replacing it with “I”.  _ If I had noticed what was happening sooner, then you wouldn’t have been in that critical of a condition. You might still have your- _

A teardrop fell on the page before Shiro could finish the sentence. Keith’s head whipped up from where he had been watching the Black Paladin write. Shiro’s hair hid his face well, but there was no denying that he was crying. Keith walked forward and pulled Shiro into a hug.

When the emo could feel that his sobs were dying down, he stepped back and slapped Shiro across the face.

Shiro’s eyes widened as his head snapped to the side. Keith took the opportunity to pull the notebook out of his hands.

_ Snap out of it, Shiro! Stop blaming yourself so something you never could have known!  _ After it was written, Keith went back and underlined the words ‘stop blaming yourself’ three times.

Shiro was still frozen in shock. Finally, he read the words Keith had furiously scribbled and couldn’t help himself. He started laughing. 

Keith wasn’t exactly sure why his brother was laughing, but he couldn’t blame the guy. Since we awoke from the cryo pod, emotions had been running rampant.

Now that Keith was up to speed, he wrote,  _ Let’s go see the others in the Lounge. _

Shiro nodded, wiping the remaining tears from his face, still chuckling softly.

 


	8. Voltron Sign Language

**Lance**

 

Lance was so _ so _ thankful that he decided to keep a notepad and pen with him today. It was a random thought he had had on a whim this morning, so without really contemplating the idea too hard he had shoved then in his coat on his way to brunch.

Just in case, he told himself.

Then, as if the universe was rewarding his genius, he ran into Keith. Boy was he thankful for the paper and pen.

After that chat, Lance left to sit with Hunk and pidge in the lounge (because he wanted to, he thought, not because Keith had said he would be there later) and he realized he had forgotten to get food in the kitchen, which was the whole point of his visit.

But… He didn’t want to go back and disturb Keith again.

Lance strolled into the Paladin Lounge, and took the seat opposite of the engineers. Pidge and Hunk were excitedly raving about possible ideas and workarounds for Keith.

“Okay, but imagine, we install lights connected to anything sound based, alarms, doorbells and stuff. That would be easy and simple, right? I guess the hardest thing is gonna be how we keep up communications at a high efficiency when we are fighting outside of the Lions. I mean, we definitely won’t have time to pantomime or write everything we need to say in the middle of a Galra invasion.” Pidge rambled.

“Of course not!” Hunk elaborated, “but we could all start learning sign language. Not only is that incredibly effective for communication, but then even the Galra wouldn’t be able to hear our plans. Kinda seems like a win-win.”

“Maybe we should ask Keith for his opinion.” Lance suggested.

“We will, of course,” Pidge stated. “But is he even awake yet?”

“Yeah, he is. I just saw him in the kitchen. He was going to find Shiro.”

“Oh. That’s good. You know, I have been rather worried for Shiro recently.” Hunk threw in, “He just… well, he is under a lot of stress. If you can believe it, it's not healthy for your hair to go white before you even hit 30.” Pidge nodded in agreement.

They went back to discussing the adjustments they’d need to implement on the Lions. Lance knew that he was more than willing to learn sign language for Keith. He knew that he would do anything to help Keith recover the fastest and best he could, but he also knew that it was Keith’s decision. They wouldn’t force him to learn sign language if he wanted to write or lipread instead.

 

**Pidge**

 

A couple minutes later and the doors opened, revealing the red and black Paladins. Lance’s eyes snapped up to watch as they made their way to the center circle of seats and sat, Keith next to Lance and Shiro next to Pidge.

They all waited for Shiro to speak, but Shiro nodded to Keith to let the emo take the reins. The Red Paladin nodded, pulling out Lance’s notebook and pen.

After a moment of scribbling, Keith held up a page that said,  _ So we have some things to discuss. _

Lance scoffed at that. Keith glared at him, but continued writing.

_ Hunk, Pidge, can you make me hearing aids? _

The two in question looked at each other, then back at Keith. They shrugged and pidge typed  _ It depends on the severity of damage _ on her orange holo screen for Keith to read.

Keith grimaced at that. _ Can you run some tests and see? I can’t hear anything, if that helps. _

“Uh, yeah.” Pidge said, nodding. Then she seemed to realize her mistake. She pulled up the orange holo screen to type. _ I don’t have any fancy equipment here, so we’ll be doing a rudimentary test. I’ll give you some headphones and you raise your hand when you hear something. Anything at all and you raise your hand, okay?  _

Pidge quickly ran to her room to retrieve her headphones and hooked them up to her holo screen to play the same pitch at different tones for Keith. Rushing back to the group she handed the headphones to Keith. When he had them situated, she started playing the tones.

The first tones sounded and Keith didn’t acknowledge them. Pidge figured that would be the case so she continued on.

A few tones later and Keith was frowning. He quickly wrote,  _ Have you started playing them yet?  _

Pidge frowned disappointed. She nodded to confirm that yes, the sounds were playing.

For the last set of tones, Pidge double checked that the volume was at max and hit play. These were the easiest for the human ear to hear… if he was gonna hear anything, it was these tones.

But his hand stayed firmly on his pen. 

As the final tone played, Pidge’s heart dropped. Granted the test was basic and fallible, but he should’ve been able to hear at least one of the pitches!

Keith shrugged off the headphones. 

“Well?” Shiro questioned.

Pidge shook her head, “If he really couldn’t hear any of them, then he is profoundly deaf. Hearing aids aren’t an option.” After she said it, she quickly wrote it down for Keith to see. 

They looked up at the sound of Keith’s pen scratching at the paper.  _ So what does that mean? _

Pidge quickly typed her response,  _ It means that, while a professional somewhere in the world could probably give you some portion of your hearing back with an implant, we can’t. Not with the tools we have available. So… It might benefit you to look into sign language. _

Keith’s head drooped. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been holding out hope of hearing again.

“But, wait!” Shiro interrupted, “There is really nothing you guys can do?”

Pidge shook her head, “I mean… even technology has its limits. Things could be done… but not by us and not in enough time to encounter the Galra in a week.”

Keith lifted his head to find the group talking. He was barely able to follow who was talking, let alone what they were saying.

Lance leaned forward, “I’m am totally down for learning sign language. But like, won’t that take us a really long time? We only have a week before the Galra fleet shows up.”

Shiro sighed, “Or, there might not even be a Galra fleet! We don’t know who sent that message or how they got their information, it could be all wrong!”

“Or it could be all right!” Pidge exclaimed.

Keith was beginning to get dizzy from all the back and forth. He had never realized before how fast conversations bounced around. He quickly scribbled on his notebook. When no one looked up at him, he reached forward and banged his hand against the table in front of him. The group quieted.

He showed them what he wrote:  _ This conversation just proved that lipreading is out of the question. I’ll learn sign language if you guys will, too. _

“Of course!” Shiro spoke. “I think I speak for all of us when I say that we will learn it together.” 

Pidge quickly typed what Shiro said. Keith nodded.

Lance stood dramatically, raising his arms for extra flair. “Wonderful. Now that that’s decided. I, Lancey-Lance hereby decree that it is lunch time. Voltron Sign Language 101 will commence after food is eaten.”

Pidge couldn’t be bothered to write out his ridiculous speech, so she summed it up by typing,  _ Lunch first, signing after. _

Keith raised his eyebrows at Lance, but followed the group out of the room.

  
  



	9. Lance's Chance

**Keith**

Keith was honestly having a hard time dealing with emotions at the moment. Whether he blamed it on the shock of the hearing loss, the uncertainty of the future or just his amplified cold personality, Keith knew he was being irrational.

The team had gone out of their way to help him learn sign (which they had indeed begun, it shocked no one that Keith seemed a natural already), but Keith just felt… annoyed.

He felt upset and… guilty. That was the word.

He was the reason for his team having to spend hours of each day studying an entirely new language. He was the reason that Pidge and Hunk had done nothing but build new “Deaf-nology” as they had taken to calling it. He was the reason his team hated him.

Not that they had actually said that last one… but Keith made inferences.

Now, he sat at the paws of the Red Lion, fidgeting with his fingernails and thinking. They had just been dismissed from their third “Voltron Sign Language 101” class. That meant that they had less than five days until the supposed Galra fleet arrived. 

But, the team had also begun to get on Keith’s nerves for other reasons. They walked on eggshells whenever he was nearby. They didn’t feel comfortable enough to just _ talk  _ around him, but, usually, they either couldn’t (or didn’t) write stuff for him, either. So communication was sort of at a standstill unless Keith went out of his way to initiate it. Which he rarely did. 

The team pitied him. And it was driving him insane.

Keith knew he was being unfair. He had been deaf for only a total of three days and they needed time to adjust, same as he did. That was why he found himself chilling with Red today. Red didn’t pity him.

Keith sighed. Besides his irrational annoyance, the signing classes were going well. Allura was having the hardest time with it, but everyone else was making steady progress. Hunk had taken the leadership role in those classes, as he (apparently) knew ASL previously for his niece.

He wasn’t completely an expert, though. And they had decided that, for simplicity sake, they wouldn’t be following completely proper American Sign Language. Keith was not understanding the structure and honestly, neither was anyone else. So they had started their own mixed sign language. Lance had helpfully named it “Voltron Sign Language (VSL) XD”. He had commemorated the name with a horrendous poster on the wall of the Lounge that said as much. 

Of everyone, Lance was annoying him the least. Keith wasn’t sure quite why, because, of course, literally everything the Blue Paladin did made Keith question his sanity. But… well, he seemed to be enjoying the VSL classes for what they were, and not out of some sense of necessity for Keith. Lance also went out of his way to write to him daily which helped Keith feel less lonely.

That’s when it clicked in Keith’s head. He felt lonely. The team were doing things  _ for _ him, not  _ with  _ him. Lance was doing things with him.

Keith hung his head. He just… needed time.

He wasn’t sure how long it had been before Keith realized he wasn’t alone. Looking up to the doorway, he saw the Blue Paladin leaning against a wall, fidgeting horribly. Lance jumped when their eyes met.

Keith raised his eyebrows. He pulled out the notepad and wrote quickly, _ How long have you been there?  _

Lance had the decency to look embarrassed. He didn’t have a notepad so he quickly remembered the sign lessons from earlier that day. With horrible fluency and awful precision, Lance fumbled through the words, _ ‘Close three hour’. _

Keith sighed dramatically, writing,  _ You mean three minutes? _

Lance paused. He raised his hands to sign a second sentence but seemed to think better of it and he went to sit by Keith. When Keith passed over the notebook, Lance wrote,  _ yeah. Guess I haven’t quite finished my homework yet. _

Hunk had given the assignment to memorize the new vocabulary, but Keith already felt confident. 

He let the paper rest in his lap for a bit, not having anything to say. Then, suddenly, Keith scribbled,  _ Thank you. For learning VSL with me, I mean. _

Lance nodded. After another second, Lance flopped back, laying flat under the lion’s stomach and staring up as if he was stargazing.

When Keith didn’t follow his lead, Lance reached forward to grip his hand and pulled the Red Paladin back to match his position. Keith glared, but otherwise didn’t fight the change in posture.

Lance picked up the pen and begun to scrawl on the notebook awkwardly, holding the paper straight above his face so he could see it without sitting up. Then, he passed the notebook over.

Keith held the book in the same awkward position to read the message. If Lance’s handwriting was bad on a normal day, writing while laying on his back made it infinitely worse. Keith struggled to make out the words,  _ How are you doing? Like, really? _

Keith wrote back, _ As well as can be expected. I think it’s starting to hit me, how much this really is going to change my future. _

_ Nah.  _ Lance scratched, _ It won’t change your future too much. You’ll still find yourself a hot babe and settle down when we get back to Earth. And here, well, Hunk and Pidge are trying their best to make life as close to normal as possible. _

Keith paused when he read that. Not the part about Hunk and Pidge, but the first bit. Keith had never explicitly said it to his Voltron team, he supposed. He just sort of assumed that they knew. But now that he thought about it, Shiro was the only person who could know, the only person he talked to before all this Voltron stuff happened.

Well, he supposed now was as good a time as any.

Keith blushed as he picked up the pen, writing, _ I definitely won’t be setting down with a ‘hot babe’.  _

Lance didn’t bother to write anything back. He merely raised his eyebrows in question.

He continued,  _ I’m not into girls. _

When Lance read the message, his face stayed blank and emotionless. Keith rolled his eyes, was he really gonna have to spell this out for him?

_ I’m gay.  _ Keith finished writing.

 

**Lance**

 

Holy sweet Jesus and Mary and Joseph.

Lance could not believe what his eyes were reading. Keith. Keith was gay.

He knew he needed to respond. Quickly. But his mind was jumbled and frozen and he couldn’t stop himself from thinking ‘I actually have a chance’. 

He quickly shook that last thought out of his brain. Just because Keith likes guys doesn’t mean that Keith likes him.

But it did mean that he  _ has a chance _ .

Lance shook himself. At this point, Keith was half sitting up, leaning against his elbow with a furious glare on his face. Lance read what he had written after the declaration.  _ God, are you that homophobic? _

Lance quickly shook his head, scrambling for the pen,  _ No. no. Just a shock. How did I not notice this before? _

Keith still looked suspicious,  _ Because you’re an idiot. _

He shrugged writing a playful,  _ Fair point. _

_ I can trust you not to make jokes and comments about this behind by back, right? _

Lance was offended that the Red Paladin even had to ask.  _ Dude. Of course not. I would never. _ He paused.  _ I would make jokes to your face, though. _

Keith sighed. _ Lance, I’m serious. It’s kinda a sore subject, alright? _

The Blue Paladin instantly sobered up,  _ Really, I won’t. I mean, It would be a little hypocritical of me, you know. I’m not exactly the straightest crayon in the box either, if you know what I mean. _

It was Keith’s turn to be surprised.  _ Wait really? You’re gay, too? _

Lance quickly corrected, _ I’m bisexual actually. But, you know. Close enough. _

Keith chuckled softly. After a pause, he wrote,  _ what are the chances that, of five random people chosen to protect the world, over half of them aren’t straight. _

Lance wasn’t the greatest at math, but the two of them definitely didn’t count as over half. Keith seemed to realize Lance’s confusion because he wrote,  _ Shiro had a boyfriend before he left for the Kerberos mission. _

Lance started laughing hysterically.  _ Man, his eyeliner is always so on point. I should’ve known. At this point, Pidge is too young to really know for herself. Hunk might turn out to be the only straight one. _

Keith rolled his eyes. He laid back down, but a small grin stayed on his face. 

Lance didn’t realize how much the secret had been weighing him down. He wasn’t scared that the team wouldn’t accept him, it just had never seemed to be the right moment to let them know. But, now, having told Keith, Lance did feel quite a bit better. 

But Lance was most happy to discover that  _ he really did have a chance _ .


	10. The EMP

**Shiro**

The week flew by. Before long, the day the Galra Fleet was supposed to arrive was here and honestly, Shiro wasn’t ready.

Keith wasn’t ready.

_They_ weren’t ready.

The “Deafnology” that Pidge and Hunk installed was working and Keith was able to function almost normally, but their sign language wasn’t good enough to utilize yet, which meant that Keith would need to write everything he wanted to say. Shiro wasn’t so sure they would have that kind of time in the heat of battle.

The rest of them would be able to communicate with him, though. Pidge had created a voice-to-words program that wrote everything they spoke into their communicators and displayed it so Keith could follow.

Shiro still wasn’t quite confident what all would be happening today. Besides a vague short message from an unknown point to an unknown point, they had no reason to believe the Galra were nearby at all. Coran hadn’t noticed anyone incoming on his radars, a statement Pidge echoed when she checked her own system radars.

Beyond that, Shiro had taken over monitoring Pidge’s “space interference” tracker and message tracer to discover any more messages and, so far, nothing suspicious had come through. The tracer continued to be successful in location either the sender or the receiver of these messages.

He wasn’t the only one nervous about the seeming lack of people in the area. Coran had devoted all his time (And Shiro really meant ALL his time. He had stopped coming to Voltron Sign lessons with the rest of the group) to tracking the nearby colonies that _must_ be there, even if they had no evidence.

Shiro was just… nervous, He reasoned to himself, he was just nervous and that was completely understandable for the situation. He was just nervous.

And stressed. His brain added.

And anxious.

And worried.

And _depressed._

He had thought about that last one a lot recently.

Logically, he knew it was only his PTSD acting up again. He had had pretty intense highs and lows since his first encounter with the Galra, but it felt like each round of depression got more and more severe.

His last one was bad enough that he had dreams of Haggar “fixing” his arm. He woke up screaming to find that Matt was already there in his room. Since then, he confided in Matt and talked through his problems with him. Matt had been spending quite a bit of his own time with Shiro as of late.

Shiro felt awful. Whether he was guilty for putting all his problems on Matt, or wasting his time, or something else entirely, anything Shiro tried to do to feel better always made him feel worse.

Then Keith lost his hearing.

Any progress that Shiro made to improve his PTSD promptly plummeted into the worst he had ever felt.

It was his fault. All of Voltron knew it, they were just too nice to say anything.

It was all his-

A knock sounded at his door. He jolted, realizing he was stuck in thought spirals again.

Matt quickly called, “Hey buddy! Allura is calling a Voltron meeting to discuss today's plan. They need you there in ten.”

When Shiro didn’t respond, Matt spoke again, “Shiro, man, you doing okay? I’m here to talk if you’re having a hard time.”

“Yeah. I’ll be there, Matt. Thanks.” He mumbled.

He trudged out of his room after he had showered and dressed and made his way to the Voltron lounge. Everyone was already there, except Pidge, who had grumbled about the lack of real food and gone in search of breakfast. Keith sat, holding his orange holo screen in front of him, which Pidge had also made into a voice-to-writing translator. Lance was next to him, yawning tiredly. Hunk sat by Allura, who was tying her long white hair into a bun.

Allura quickly started. “Okay Paladins! Supposedly, the Galra Fleet will arrive today in about four vargas. Well, I’d suggest using this time to practice a group training exercise with the Lions to make sure you can maintain your team dynamic with our recent developments.”

Keith gritted his teeth.

Shiro spoke next, “Absolutely. As soon as Pidge gets back we will-”

Pidge ran back into the lounge, saying, “Hey guys, It’s a little late for this, but like, did we ever figure out what that “Prep EMP” thing in the message meant? I just remembered it and like, it seems important.”

Hunk raised his eyes to meet Shiro’s, “On Earth, EMP means electromagnetic pulse. But that doesn’t make sense out here. Nothing runs on electricity or electromagnets, so an EMP would be useless. That’s why we didn’t consider it an issue.”

Pidge furrowed her eyebrows, “That’s odd. The Galra don’t use electricity either. Why would they send instructions to prep an EMP that would be virtually useless?”

Hunk hesitated, “Well… maybe it’s a code name. Like, it could be a nickname for a device that does a similar thing to what an EMP would do on Earth? We have already established that these people have past ties to Earth and ridiculously advanced tech, so it’s not too crazy of an idea.”

Allura frowned, “What does an EMP do on Earth?”

Pidge sighed, “It completely blocks incoming and outgoing signals in an area and, depending on its strength, can destroy electronics. They can be pretty deadly, depending on the situation.”

“So… a Galra version of that would stop their ships from functioning, right? And Galra ships run on quintessence and crystals combined. If we are in the radius of the EMP, it will definitely affect the Castle too!”

Just then, Coran sprinted into the room, “The Galra have arrived early!”

“But, wait! How do we-” Pidge started.

But just then, the lights suddenly flashed and died, leaving the group in darkness. The Castle of Lions shuttered to a stop and made a noise like it was powering off.

Lance, who had been noticeably quiet, spoke out, “Early! Aww man. Hey, does anyone else suddenly feel really tired?” He yawned loudly, “Woah. Like _really_ tired?”

They all blinked to adjust to the new lighting and Allura rubbed at her eyes, “I think we just experienced the EMP.”

Pidge’s eyelid’s drooped, “Definitely. It makes sense. It halts all…” She yawned, “all quintessence communication… which is why we feel like this. Human’s and Altean’s have a natural quintessence.”

Shiro’s shoulders hunched as he said, “We should get to our lions.”

“Negative,” Pidge fought to keep talking, “They run on quintessence. They’re virtually useless right now.”

“What can we do?” Lance said, leaning his head back against the seat and closing his eyes.

“I don’t….” She let her voice drift off. Her eyes blinked drowsily. Then Pidge seemed to realize she was saying something and finished, “Don’t know.”

Just then, something jolted the Castle and Keith looked up from him screen which had been automatically writing everything that was said. Keith waved to get the group’s attention, then signed, _I don’t understand. What is happening?_

But, before anyone could respond, a voice echoed around the room, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once. The voice was nasally and robotic, and though Shiro knew that it was important to _do something_ , his body seemed too tired to even try to react.

“This is an incoming message from a nearby colony. Unidentified ship, prepare to be boarded. Whether we are friendly or not entirely depends on your actions. Chose wisely.”

Lance turned to Keith and explained the situation, as Keith still didn’t understand who was speaking.

Shiro forced himself to feet with a shove. His Galra hand was completely unresponsive which caused him to topple over slightly. “Paladins, we need to…uh… need to….”

What was he saying again?

Thankfully, Allura took over, “Be prepared. Lions aren’t working, ship is down. None of us can fight right now so… I guess we surrender?”

Lance whined. His eyes were closed and his head leaned back against the seat, he whimpered a quiet, “Nooooo. We can… we can fight.”

Pidge was completely asleep against Hunk at this point, and glancing around, Shiro shook his head.

That was when a group of ominous-looking figures in dark armor-like suits turned the corner into the lounge. That was odd, Shiro hadn’t even felt them board the ship.

One figure stepped forward, “Do not resist and we won’t hurt you.” Their voice was obviously distorted by a voice changer.

Hunk gave a small chuckle, “Couldn’t if I wanted to.”

Another stepped forward, their voice was distorted as well, but the figure was smaller and, Shiro thought, resembled a female. “Sir, I think they are human.”

“Human?” The leader sounded shocked. Why? Shiro wasn’t comprehending anything that was being said. “How could there be humans this far into space?”

The female figure spoke up again as Shiro’s eyes finally drifted closed, “And look, Sir, this one resembles an Altean!”

“That’s ridiculous! No Alteans have been spotted for millennia!” A pause, “Take them to lockup! Bring the ship down to the colony as well. They have a lot of explaining to do.”

And finally, the world around Shiro faded away.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first fanfic, so any and all comments help me to improve my works.
> 
> Just letting you guys know, this fanfic will feature Klance, but that will NOT be the sole focus of the fic! In fact, I hope for each Voltron paladin to have their own solid arc throughout the story... But who knows? I haven't written any of that yet. :D
> 
> If you guys have any suggestions for future plot ideas, you can leave them in comments. I already have a vague idea of the plot, at least for the first major arc, but I'd still love some ideas! And I don't have an editor, and don't plan on ever having one, but if you comment errors, I'll try to fix them. I hate grammar mistakes but some things just slip my notice.
> 
> Emmy Lauren


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